Today's announcement by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the agency was moving "beyond 'pay and chase' to prevent fraud in areas of known risk." It said the Dallas and Houston areas have a "disproportionate number of home-health providers" and "extremely high utilization."

Similar moratoria apply in the Detroit, Chicago and South Florida areas.

Dallas and Houston aren't the only Texas areas with troubled histories. As I reported in 2012: "Texas particularly stands out on a list of counties with the highest rates of home health-care use. The top seven counties in the nation are all in the state’s southern tip: Brooks, Duval, Starr, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Willacy and Hidalgo, in that order."